These 3 performance rights organizations collect fees from the businesses that play music for you … and then pays the writers of that music. If the writers have sold their ownership, then the new owners of the rights are paid. Famously, Michael Jackson bought the rights to most of the Beatles catalog and was paid those performance royalties for many years.

How do you pay for your music?

Do you buy electronic files? Good, you’re covered. The performers and writers get an extremely small payday every time you buy their music.

Do you buy CDs? Good, you’re covered (and you must be old, like me). The performers and writers get a very small payday every time you buy their CD.

Do you hear live music performed? Good, you’re covered. The place where you hear the music — whether it’s at a bar or a stadium featuring a college marching band — pays for the right to host the performance you’re hearing. The writers get a payday. The performers … well, they get paid whatever the venue pays them.

Do you listen to music recordings in your exercise class? Good, you’re covered. Your instructor, or the host establishment, has to pay for the privilege of playing music that you hear … and pay for the privilege of hearing in their establishment. You pay, so they pay.

Do you stream music? Good, you’re covered. The performers and writers get a payday every time you hear their record. That’s true whether you stream your music through YouTube, your favorite radio station website, Pandora, Spotify or Jango.

Do you listen to the radio? Good, you’re covered. The writers get a payday … but according to US law, the performers do not. The longstanding legal situation is that radio pays the writers for performance rights … but pays nothing to the performers. Those performers benefit from the promotion of their music, and that has been true for a very long time. Radio airplay drives sales, and drives concert ticket sales, too.

Why do streamers pay money to the performers, but radio does not? Because that’s the law.

Sound fair? You’ll get different answers depending on who you favor … performers lobby congress to change the law so they get more money (doesn’t everyone want that?). Streamers (like Pandora) lobby congress to lower their rates. Radio stations … keep pointing out that airplay is a promotional benefit for performers, and they shouldn’t have to pay a dime. And so far, that’s holding. Every year, the record labels get their congressional buddies to submit legislation that would change this, and every year radio knocks it down. Because that’s the way it’s always been.

So, how do you get your music? Do you download your music for free? Download it from a website without paying for it? Copy it to your iPod so you can play it whenever you want? That means you are not paying for your music.